Passive Optical Networking (PON) enables the shared use of fiber for services such as data, voice and video over most of the distance between a central office and service subscriber sites. PON is significantly less expensive to deploy and operate due to the compact size and passive nature of much of the equipment comprised by the PON facilities. For example, a passive optical splitter that fans the fiber out to service subscribers in a PON is relatively small, uses no electronics and requires no power source.
Current and emerging PON solutions offer cost-effective, end-to-end solutions that are capable of delivering a combination of high-demand services. Specific examples of such current and emerging PON solutions include Broadband PON (BPON), Ethernet PON (EPON) and Gigabit PON (GPON). Examples of services that can be provided via such PON solutions include various types of telephony services, data transmission services and video services. Signals for such services are transported optically from the central office (CO) or headend (HE) to an optical-network termination unit (referred to herein as the ONT) at a service subscriber's site. The ONT is configured to provide optical network termination functionality and, in some implementations, to also provide conventional network interface device functionality.
Before a service subscriber can receive requested services via PON, an ONT must be installed at the service subscriber's site and requested services must be activated. The conventional approach for activating service for a particular service subscriber is performed in conjunction with installing the subscriber's ONT. A field technician, commonly referred to as a Craft, carries out physical installation of an ONT (e.g., a ONT having a particular serial number) at a new subscriber's site. After the ONT is installed, the Craft initiates communication with a service activator (i.e., a person) who performs activation of the subscriber's service, with the Craft providing manual provisioning assistance as needed at the subscriber site. Activating the PON services includes provisioning the requested services and associating the provisioned services with the ONT.
The capability of selecting an arbitrary ONT for installation at a customer site provides the operating company with a significant level of flexibility in achieving the goal of quick and efficient service activation. In order to permit the aforementioned installation of an arbitrarily selected ONT, the rest of the PON system needs to receive enough information to associate the newly installed ONT with the particular set of provisioning information required to activate the services requested by the subscriber located where the ONT is installed. One conventional option for accomplishing this is to arrange the system so that the installer of the ONT (i.e., the Craft) provides this information to the ONT manually. Thereafter, the ONT can provide the information to the Optical Line Terminal (OLT) and/or any other management entity in the system, and the proper association of provisioning with the newly installed ONT can then be made automatically by the system.
In some conventional systems, the information manually provided by the installer is a site identifier or other information which identifies the geographic location where the ONT has been installed. The ONT then sends this site identifier/location information together with it's own identification information (for example its serial number) to the OLT/management entities in the system. In response to the ONT identifier and the site identifier, the OLT/management entities in the system can automatically perform the process of associating provisioning with the newly installed ONT.
The installer can utilize several different types of devices to manually provide the site identifier/geographic location information to the ONT, for example, a butt end device or other similar device, or an Ethernet RS 232-based input device. However, any such mechanism which provides manual access to the ONT represents a security risk, because the access port that is used to provide the site identifier/geographic location information is also available to unauthorized users. One way to avoid such a security risk is for the installer to report the site identifier/geographic location information directly to the OLT/management entities of the system, without ever providing the site identifier/geographic location information to the ONT. In this situation, the ONT does not require any mechanism (or the attendant security risk) for permitting the installer to manually provide the site identifier/geographic location information to the ONT.
It is desirable in view of the foregoing to be able to provide the ONT's identity and its site identifier to an OLT/management entity without manually inputting the site identifier to the ONT and without requiring the installer to manually report the site identifier to the OLT/management entity.
Exemplary embodiments of the present invention permit the ONT to determine its own geographic location information automatically, so the ONT can report its identity and its geographic location information to an OLT/management entity automatically, without manual intervention.